Supermarkets in general are a pretty stable part of the retail landscape, but that doesn’t mean parts of the industry haven’t been hurting. The top end remains a nice place to be though, especially after a decade of foodie culture has given large swaths of middle and upper income earners a taste for complicated vinegars and cheeses that come in wooden boxes.

From the WSJ’s Matthew Jarzemsky:

High-growth grocery chain Sprouts Farmers Markets files initial paperwork for its IPO. Will it be another Fairway Group? NYC area-focused Fairway has seen its shares fly off the shelves, gaining 38% since its debut last month. Sprouts, which operates 157 stores in the states between Texas and California, has some obvious parallels. Both have seen rapid sales growth in recent years and say they appeal to organic-food seekers as well as the conventional supermarket crowd.

Investors like these kind of supermarkets more than the more established players that are fairly settled in their ways. As the WSJ’s Annie Gasparro and Matt Jarzemsky wrote after Fairway’s IPO in mid-April:

The company appeals to investors because, unlike traditional supermarkets—which have generally struggled to compete on anything but price—niche chains like Whole Foods and Fresh Market have gained business. Investors see these chains as more innovative, with more potential to expand.

When Fresh Market went public in late 2010, the gourmet grocer’s stock rose 46% on its first day of trading to $32.11.

Whole Foods and Fresh Market now boast price-to-earnings valuations that are two to three times as high as traditional supermarket stocks, such as Safeway and Kroger

Here’s how Sprouts, which had 157 stores open as of the beginning of May, described its growth prospects in the IPO filing today:

We believe that our broad product offering and value proposition appeals to a wider demographic than other leading competitors, including higher-priced health food and gourmet food retailers. Sprouts has been successful across a variety of urban, suburban and rural locations in diverse geographies, from California to Oklahoma, underscoring the heightened interest in eating healthy across markets. Based on research conducted for us, we believe that the U.S. market can support approximately 1,200 Sprouts Farmers Market stores operating under our current format, including 300 in states in which we currently operate. We expect to achieve 12% or more annual new store growth over at least the next five years, balanced among existing, adjacent and new markets.

Sales at its stores have grown for 23 consecutive quarters, the company said, including throughout the financial crisis.